howto

Like many others, I've become somewhat dependent on virtualization to reduce the number of computers and windows installs I have in my home. I recently took another stab at using open source virtualization, and I've had some success with WebVirtMgr, a libvirt-based VM management solution for Linux. This made me want to migrate some XP guests from vmware player to KVM, and I'm happy to say that this is relatively simple today once you figure out the precise sequence of events.

I just got a nice Samsung EVO 850 SSD, and therefore got the chance to remove two spinning disks from my PC. But in order to make this happen, I had to move Windows to the SSD I had in my PC already. So I mounted the new SSD and formatted it ext4, and transferred Linux without a hitch. Then I booted up and used gparted to transfer Windows to the old SSD I'd just vacated, and it wouldn't boot. I thought these problems were over? I used my Linux install (with vmware player) to fix the problem just as I had used it (with gparted) to copy Windows from one volume to another.

I recently became reinterested in pogoplug devices when they seemed to have come down to a fairly reliable ten to twenty dollars for the latest models, the kind with an SD slot. They're nice little ARM-based machines with a lovely case and pads for a 3.3 volt serial port. Now I wanted to add a little basic functionality to them when running Debian.

Image

I picked up a Vertical Communications 7504-10 IP phone from a yard sale a little while ago on the assumption that since it was standards-based (SIP) that I'd be able to use it with Asterisk. Browsing around with google only revealed one thread where someone claimed that you could make the phones work, but said nothing about getting into the phone in the first place. But as it turns out, it's actually quite easy to configure these phones to work with an arbitrary SIP provider.

Image

Once I bought a dockstar, and was mightily annoyed by it. Eventually new Pogoplugs came out, and I invested a whopping nine bucks in a used pogoplug mobile. After having it deregistered by support, I tried installing ArchLinuxARM on it. This produced a brick with a flashing green light, so do not try to install Arch for ARM on this device. It's probably possible to make it work, but the default install instructions don't work. Further, the revert process didn't work either! Seems like their u-boot is broken for this device.

When I updated Drupal to 7.24, the status report instructed me to twiddle my .htaccess files per security advisory SA-CORE-2013-003, so I did. And then my site unthemed itself. A quick trip to the error log revealed the problem, and even the solution: change FollowSymLinks to SymLinksIfOwnerMatch.

When you paint something which has already been painted, sometimes the solvents in your new paint interact with the old paint on the surface, with somewhat unpredictable results. Generally, the results include lifting in the form of either wrinkling or peeling. This is very common in auto paints, and in anything that comes out of a spray can. But I've found a set of solutions for dealing with paint interaction which are fairly effective when combined.

Have you ever wanted to launch an Android app from the shell, but you were confused as to how to go about it? Me too, but after a bit of searching about I found a couple of posts that explain how to do it. Short short form, you use aapt to find the activity you want to execute, and then you can use the am command (on the device) to launch the program.

I finally broke down and got Minecraft, even though I think Minetest is fairly excellent and getting better. Even though you pay Mojang for the game, making it polished takes at least a couple of mods and making it really slick takes a few more. I wrassled around with minecraft on Linux and found a decent set of bits which make the game pretty fancy. This guide assumes you've got minecraft successfully installed, but not too much else.

The Seagate Dockstar is the lowest-end PogoPlug device, a tiny low-power ARM server which runs Linux. Devices like this are ubiquitous now, but when the PogoPlug came out it was extremely unusual. It also cost substantially more than it does today, when a Rev.2 PogoPlug (not the new-new one, the old new one) is only $20. The only cheaper ARM-based server I know of is the Dockstar, which can be had for as little as $14 through Amazon today. Regardless of which PogoPlug you might have, you probably want to run Debian Squeeze with a recent kernel featuring LED support, which is not that difficult — but finding all the information you need is.